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Topic Review (Newest First)

01-09-2013 09:48 PM

farrenator

I have a tank with Cardinals, Rummynose, Congo Tetras and RCS. The shrimp are fine although I have a lot of plants as well. The only time the fish pay attention to them is if they are swimming in the open water. Other than that, when they are on plants not really moving around the fish don't even notice them.

With the fish you are getting, if you want RCS, get them. Once they are established they breed like cockroaches anyway which will probably more than offset any predation.

Great, thanks for the input! Looks like RCS are out and Amano are in (possibly bamboos, need to do some more research on them) for the 100 gal. How many you think would be sufficient? I see they're about 2" full grown so I was thinking about 10 - 15 should do.

I'm still debating on the 15x Harlequin Rasbora's, thinking I may swap them out for 10x Swordtails (2 males 8 females).

01-09-2013 08:57 PM

dreamchick

That looks like it will be a fun tank. Remember to post a pic once it is done.

01-09-2013 06:46 PM

somewhatshocked

Bamboo Shrimp are filter feeders, so they do best in well-established tanks. Probably not a good idea for your tank for a while.

Stick to Amanos until you're sure you want to try something else.

Or, if your tank is heavily planted, you may consider a few Dwarf CPOs for a splash of orange color. You probably couldn't keep them with shrimp, though. (CPOs can be a hazard for slow fish and snails.)

I agree that the rcs should be saved for a smaller tank so they can have their own colony and won't be stressed and all that. But if you are doing all these small fish, then amanos would be perfect! Don't know anything about bamboo shrimp though...

Great, thanks for the input! Looks like RCS are out and Amano are in (possibly bamboos, need to do some more research on them) for the 100 gal. How many you think would be sufficient? I see they're about 2" full grown so I was thinking about 10 - 15 should do.

I'm still debating on the 15x Harlequin Rasbora's, thinking I may swap them out for 10x Swordtails (2 males 8 females).

01-09-2013 04:41 AM

mitchfish9

I agree that the rcs should be saved for a smaller tank so they can have their own colony and won't be stressed and all that. But if you are doing all these small fish, then amanos would be perfect! Don't know anything about bamboo shrimp though...

There is one fish that is truly shrimp-safe: Oto. Beyond that, they all eat shrimplets. Some will also torture adults to (literal) death, will eat them when they molt, etc.

That's why it's always best to go with the smallest fish possible when you plan to have a focus on shrimp. Fish like Boraras brigittae work well. They're often smaller than adult Neo shrimp.

Gotcha. The focus of the tank will be the fish, the shrimp are just added eye candy. I'm not really interested in trying to breed them in any way (saving that for the 20 gallon sitting in my garage after I get this 100 gal up and running), I mean if they do, great, but it's not a big thing for me. Would it make more sense to go with something like the Bamboo shrimp as opposed to the RCS? I debated doing a lobster or two instead of any shrimp but figured the fish on my list wouldn't last long against them.

01-09-2013 02:51 AM

somewhatshocked

There is one fish that is truly shrimp-safe: Oto. Beyond that, they all eat shrimplets. Some will also torture adults to (literal) death, will eat them when they molt, etc.

That's why it's always best to go with the smallest fish possible when you plan to have a focus on shrimp. Fish like Boraras brigittae work well. They're often smaller than adult Neo shrimp.

Are you set on Eco-Complete? If not, there are tons of other options. From Safe T Sorb ($5 for 40lbs) to black blasting grit if you're looking for the dark color. Or even standard crushed black lava rock.

I wouldn't mix Eco-Complete and sand. Sand will eventually settle to the bottom. If you're going inert with your substrate, pick one and use only that one.

Don't shoot for the pH. It'll set itself based on the goodies in your tank, KH, GH and such.

Go with Corydoras habrosus or something similar. You could do waaaay more in that tank. I'm thinking about 20.

Since you want shrimp, I'd avoid Tetras and similarly-sized fish. Maybe Ember Tetras (H. amandae) if you go with Tetras? They're a bit smaller than Neons.

Or maybe you could pick two schools - maybe 30 of each? For example… 20-30 Embers and 20-30 of some sort of small Rasbora. That could look amazing.

Amanos will do fine with Cherries. Your tank could handle a bunch of them and literally thousands of Cherries.

Thanks for the info! The only thing I'm sold on is there will be water, plants and fish. Lol

I'll look into those recommendations though. While I want a bunch of schooling fish I'm trying to avoid the "it's just a neon tetra tank" while those are cool in their own regard I'm trying to go for the freshwater reef tank with lots of docile colorful fish. I'll look into the embers and corys you recommend for sure, thanks!

From what I've been able to find the second list of fish are all pretty safe picks for having shrimp in the tank, is there any reason you say otherwise? I've only done reef tanks previously so trying to learn everything I can.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

01-08-2013 11:58 PM

somewhatshocked

Are you set on Eco-Complete? If not, there are tons of other options. From Safe T Sorb ($5 for 40lbs) to black blasting grit if you're looking for the dark color. Or even standard crushed black lava rock.

I wouldn't mix Eco-Complete and sand. Sand will eventually settle to the bottom. If you're going inert with your substrate, pick one and use only that one.

Don't shoot for the pH. It'll set itself based on the goodies in your tank, KH, GH and such.

Go with Corydoras habrosus or something similar. You could do waaaay more in that tank. I'm thinking about 20.

Since you want shrimp, I'd avoid Tetras and similarly-sized fish. Maybe Ember Tetras (H. amandae) if you go with Tetras? They're a bit smaller than Neons.

Or maybe you could pick two schools - maybe 30 of each? For example… 20-30 Embers and 20-30 of some sort of small Rasbora. That could look amazing.

Amanos will do fine with Cherries. Your tank could handle a bunch of them and literally thousands of Cherries.

Have you considered Amano shrimp? They get big and usually do well with peaceful fish as they are too big to eat. They also do a great job at cleaning algae. Personally I would set up a small breeder colony of RCS. Then add them as they get larger. Make sure you have alot of Java and Peacock moss to protect them.
I've got about 20 RCS I put in a 46g with some Cory's, Neon's, and Blue Rams. So far the Blue Rams have left them alone

I did consider Amano shrimp, I was just worried that they may not get along with the RCS (my shrimp of choice). Have you had good experience with Amano and RCS co-habitating together? The java moss and peacock moss will certainly not be in short supply for what I am planning.

Thanks for the input! I had considered Blue Rams myself as, from what I understand, they do generally well with community tanks like the ones I'm making but the feedback seems to be hit or miss on their compatibility with shrimp species. Some have success and others have a feeding frenzy :/

01-08-2013 07:32 PM

The Dude

Have you considered Amano shrimp? They get big and usually do well with peaceful fish as they are too big to eat. They also do a great job at cleaning algae. Personally I would set up a small breeder colony of RCS. Then add them as they get larger. Make sure you have alot of Java and Peacock moss to protect them.
I've got about 20 RCS I put in a 46g with some Cory's, Neon's, and Blue Rams. So far the Blue Rams have left them alone

tiger barbs get up to 3" and they can be aggressive, often times listed as "semi-aggressive"

they're a blast to watch in a group though. I had 7 in my 55g and they were the most entertaining fish. they also crapped a lot which helped the plants. I swear once i took them out my floating plants died off quick.

remember, fish will eat whatever they can fit in their mouth.

my cleaner shrimp is a X... it'll pull food right out of the duncan's mouth and scares off my goby quite often during feeding.

Yeah that's one of the reasons I ruled out bala sharks, though those are sweet fish, oh well, the down sides of a docile community tank.

Haha, my lawnmower blenny became my tank policeman and every time the cleaner shrimp was being a jerk, typically to my clowns, he'd just set up right above the anenomies and chase them when they came out, my lawnmower would just knock him off the rock and go about his business. It's really cool to see the little personalities that come out in tanks.

01-08-2013 07:10 PM

scapegoat

tiger barbs get up to 3" and they can be aggressive, often times listed as "semi-aggressive"

they're a blast to watch in a group though. I had 7 in my 55g and they were the most entertaining fish. they also crapped a lot which helped the plants. I swear once i took them out my floating plants died off quick.

remember, fish will eat whatever they can fit in their mouth.

my cleaner shrimp is a X... it'll pull food right out of the duncan's mouth and scares off my goby quite often during feeding.

I have a good colony of red cherries going, well over 100, that two kirbensis cichlids destroyed inside of 72 hours...

Ouch, good to know. Shrimp are a definite in the tank so barbs are out! Thanks for the input!

One thing that I miss from my reef tanks is the scarlet cleaner shrimp, those guys were awesome. I have yet to find any similar shrimp for freshwater as I guess it's less common to have freshwater "cleaning stations" like in the ocean?

01-08-2013 06:50 PM

scapegoat

I think ghost shrimp are technically brackish and wouldnt do well long term.